East Meets West in Two Fabulous Freshmen : Philly’s Pooh Richardson Has Made Pauley His Playground

Walt Hazzard can, when pressed, list the skills of his freshman point guard. But it’s a long list, and then he has to spend another 10 minutes explaining the intangibles--the instinct, the court sense, the cocksure confidence, the natural leadership qualities.

More often, the UCLA coach makes do with a simple statement of fact: “Pooh Richardson can play basketball. He can play the game.”

There are benches full of athletes with long lists of skills who can’t put it all together and play the game the way Pooh plays it. The way he loves to play it.

Pooh Richardson--Jerome to those who picture him as a chubby baby who looked like Winnie the Pooh--came to UCLA from the playgrounds of Philadelphia.

He came just as Hazzard once had come, just as Andre McCarter, now a Bruin assistant coach, once had come.

McCarter, who helped to recruit Richardson, had seen some of his games at Ben Franklin High School. But he also had seen Richardson play on the playgrounds.

As McCarter puts it: “That’s a whole ‘nother world. That’s where you get to be creative. That’s where you get to show yourself.

“That’s where you make your reputation.”

Pooh Richardson had quite a reputation when he signed with UCLA on Nov. 19, 1984. He was one of the most highly recruited guards in the country when he signed that early letter of intent, and he went on to become a prep All-American as a senior.

He has put on quite a show this season, too.

He has been the Bruins’ starting point guard since the sixth game of the season, and he’s looking like the best freshman point guard in the country.

He won the starting spot after the game against St. John’s, during which he had 10 assists and prompted St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca to predict that the UCLA shooters were going to love him in years to come. “They ought to carry his bag,” Carnesecca said.

Richardson is leading the Pac-10 in assists, averaging 6.7 a game. He’s also averaging 10.8 points and 4.2 rebounds a game. And all of those averages represent numbers that have been on a steady increase since he started running the team.

For example, Thursday night in the Bruins’ overtime victory over Washington, Richardson had a career-high 21 points, plus 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

No one is surprised at his instant success, least of all Richardson. He said that one of the reasons he chose UCLA was that he knew he could come in and play as a freshman.

“I felt that if I didn’t play as a freshman, I’d just be wasting a whole year when I could have been playing basketball,” he said.

When a guy loves the game the way Richardson loves the game, there is no way he’d spend a year of his life waiting to play.

The rule of the playground is, you play well, you keep playing. Only the second-rate players have to wait for somebody to get tired and go home.

Richardson knows he’s not second-rate. He couldn’t be second-rate and do what he has to do.

More important than his behind-the-back passes, his no-look feeds, his quick-acceleration drives to the basket or his high percentage jump shot is his attitude when he has to bring the four other players into the picture and make something happen.

Pooh Richardson, a freshman, is doing it. And there are some sophomores and juniors among the Bruins who have felt his glare when they didn’t follow his lead.

He’s not a bit shy about chastising a teammate when one of his passes is mishandled or when he launches a lob that somebody forgets to slam home.

Yet, so far, none of the Bruins are complaining about a cocky newcomer.

“There’s a difference between cockiness and confidence,” Richardson said. “The difference is showing respect for your teammates and your opponents.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself, but I know that I can learn from everybody else on the court. I’m not afraid to learn from other players. It’s a constant learning process.”

Richardson is so comfortable with his own confidence, so sure of himself, that he sometimes has trouble understanding why people expect him to act like a freshman.

The first time he was brought to the interview room to face the local media was after the annual intrasquad game. He was brought in with junior forward Reggie Miller, an old pro at interviews.

Most of the questions were directed to Miller until someone asked Richardson if he had been nervous.

Richardson asked to hear the question again. He looked to Miller for help. And just when the reporters were starting to think that the freshman was intimidated by the pressure of the interview, he threw back a question: “Why would anyone be nervous about playing in an intrasquad game?”

Richardson isn’t nervous about playing on national television or about playing against David Rivers of Notre Dame, the freshman point-guard sensation of a year ago.

In fact, Richardson thrives on big games, big pressure. He wants to be the guy with the ball when the game is on the line.

If there’s a basketball game to be played, fine. If there’s an intimidation mind game to be played in order to play that basketball game, all the better.

“I look forward to playing against someone like David Rivers, someone the press has been buffing up,” Richardson said. “For one thing, I want to see what he can do and I want to see what I might learn from him. But I want him to know that he might learn something from me, too.

“He probably thought when he went out there that he’d step in my chest. But after a few times down the court, I think he realized that he’d have to play well against me.

“I think he respected me by the end of the game.”

There’s a little fire of intensity burning inside Richardson. It’s there all the time, not just at game time.

Playing for a team that is 10-8 and floundering around in the middle of the Pacific 10 standings with a record of 5-4 hurts.

Earlier this season, when the Bruins had lost three straight, Richardson thought for a moment and concluded that he had never before played for a team that had lost three in a row.

His high school team was 26-1 and won the city title when he was a junior. It was 23-2 when he was a senior.

For Richardson, to lose eight basketball games is having to deal with serious adversity.

Surely he knew when he came to UCLA that the Bruin program now is not the same Bruin program that won those NCAA title banners that adorn Pauley Pavilion.

“There were people talking some bad stuff about UCLA when I was being recruited,” Richardson said. “I heard all those things about UCLA doesn’t have this and UCLA doesn’t have that. But Coach Hazzard wasn’t talking that way.

“I don’t mind being part of building something. But we never said, before the season started, that we might lose some games. Coach Hazzard would never say that, and if he did, I wouldn’t believe him.

“I believe that when it all ends up, we’ll be where we’re supposed to be.

“I know that there is a question in some people’s minds about whether I might transfer, since I am used to winning so much and I was so visible coming out of high school. There were a lot of people who thought I wouldn’t be happy at UCLA. But that doesn’t mean that I might up and go at any time. I don’t do things that way.

“When I said I was coming here, that was it. I made my decision carefully. I came here to help this team win. That’s the job we have to do.

“I have to deal with some adversity now. If it were up to me, I’d win every game. But I can just give my all and do my part and know that the other players are giving their all, too.”

One of the things he heard a lot about as he felt pressure to stay in the East was the way McCarter had been handled at UCLA.

When McCarter was recruited, he was as big a star as Richardson. But UCLA Coach John Wooden did not make McCarter a star for the Bruins. And his pro career didn’t go anywhere, either.

Richardson kept hearing about how UCLA ruined Andre McCarter.

Says McCarter: “At the time that I came to UCLA, I could do a lot of things, but Coach Wooden--who I love--didn’t need for me to do all those things. He needed for me to do a couple of them, and we were winning.

“All I had to do to convince Pooh that it would be different for him was to tell him that we needed everything he could do and we needed it right away.”

UCLA needs all Pooh can do and more. There are some big guys coming in next season, and Richardson is looking forward to that.

In the meantime, he’s doing his best to deal with the losses that are coming his way.

“I feel that if you win as much as I’ve won or as much as this program at UCLA has won, eventually, you’re going to have to lose some games,” he said. “That’s what tests you and tests your supporting cast.

“It tests their character, too. Sure, they’re always around you when you win. Where are they when you lose? Are they going to help you get back on top or are they going to bail out when it gets bad?

“I know I’m not going to bail out.”